Bitium Raises $6.5 Million in Series A Round

Santa Monica’s Bitium announced Friday it had raised $6.5 million in a series A round. The company, which develops products to help companies manage passwords for employees to access various apps, has raised nearly $9 million to date.

Instead of having employees to log on to multiple apps and services in different places, Bitium provides software allowing employees to log onto all of these services in one place. The company’s software is compatible with about 1,700 Web services.

Polaris Partners of Waltham, Mass., led the round, and Managing Partner Dave Barrett will join Bitium’s board. Local accelerator Amplify.LA took part in the round as well.

The two-year-old company said it would using the funds for product development. Chief Executive Scott Kriz said he hoped to expand new software that will display visually how secure passwords are. The round will also fund an expansion of staff.

“We will be recruiting,” Kriz said. “We are hiring on the engineering side and on the sales and marketing side as well. Last year this time we were at six people, now we’re at 22.”

The company moved from Venice to Santa Monica in September to accommodate its growing ranks.